Touring the Yakult Central Institute in Japan!

During the first day of the Yakult Japan Journalist Tour (May 26 to be exact), we left the hotel at 8am and boarded a bus to the Yakult Central Institute. Our Yakult Lady adventure actually took place on the second day, May 27.

We were a mixed group comprised of people from the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, China, Australia, and New Zealand. Sophie Uy of Sampleroom.ph, myself, and Michael Ong of Yakult Philippines made up the Philippine contingent.

Our bus had a chiller full of Yakult drinks I have never seen before, such as these 100% fruit juices. Yakult Apple Juice was officially the first non-dairy Yakult drink I tried. It tasted kind of like Mott's and Treetop apple juices, just a tad more subtle in terms of flavor. I tried orange later on (we were on this bus a lot, lol) and that one reminded me a bit of the now defunct Orange Julius.

Over an hour later, we arrived at the Yakult Central Institute located outside of Tokyo. This is where all the research and development occurs.

We all had a bottle of Yakult 400 by our places on the tables. Yakult 400? Okay, so this is how it is... regular Yakult (the one we have here in the Philippines, both the original and light variants) contain 8 billion live lactobacilli per bottle. Yakult 400 (both original and light variants) contain 40 billion live lactobacilli. For the record, I asked the folks at Yakult Central Institute, there is NO LIMIT to the amount of lactobacilli you can ingest in a day. It's the SUGAR you have to worry about because Yakult probiotic drinks are mainly of comprised of skim milk and sugar. Read more »

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